This is an Oribe tea bowl from the Momoyama period, 1467-1603. It doesn’t have any chips or other defects. The box says Kohori Kishinan, previously known as Somei Masanori, see http://www.enshuryu.com/e-enshuryu.htm. I am unsure of the reading for his given name. Mr. Kohori was the 11th. head of the Enshu Ryu school of tea、see http://www.enshuryu.com/e-index.htm. He wrote the song on the lid of the box. Because of this lid the price for this bowl has gone way up. The lettering on the box lid is very nice.
I saw this bowl in Nara a couple of days ago. When it was brought into the room it reeked of sake. It hasn’t been used for a long time in a tea ceremony. In order to ready it for tea it was filled with sake and left overnight. The smell will take a couple of days to disappear.
I think the brush work and overall feeling is very nice. Usually this shape is one that I don’t get too excited about. This is one of the first bowls of this shape that is of this era that I have been able to handle extensively. The feel of the glaze is rough but has been softened by use over the 400-600 or so years since it has been made.
The book leaf is from a reference book on signatures. It shows the progression of signatures of Mr. Kohori from his earliest, in the upper left hand corner of the right side of the photocopy to the signature he used before his death in the lower right hand corner. The signature on the box lid, lower left hand corner, matches his last signature.

Tags: Japan, Momoyama period, tea bowl

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Articles, Blog Entry, Ceramics, Porcelain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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